Later Life
After the victory at the Battle of Blood River, The Voortrekkers moved to Pietermaritzburg, and Cilliers moved to a farm in Welgevonden (now Colbourn), about sixteen miles north of Howick in Natal. By selling timber from the trees on his farm he was able to make a good income.
Cilliers served in the Natalia Republic's first House of Assembly. As a member of Council, Cilliers played a large part in the creation of the Covenant Church in Pietermaritzburg in 1839. In 1843, after the British annexation of Natal, Cilliers withdrew from political life, maintaining an important role as an elder of the church.
In 1847, Cilliers sold his farm and moved to the Orange Free State. Here he setlled on the farm Doornkloof, in the Lindley district, where he allegedly built his homestead single-handedly. His wife was buried here at the time of her death in 1852. On 15 May 1854, he married Aletta Elizabeth Loots - a thirty-three-year-old widow with whom he had one son.
During the final years of his life, Cilliers was often ill. He died on 4 October 1871, and was buried in the Cilliers family cemetery, in a grave marked by a simple tombstone and later a monument.
Read more about this topic: Sarel Cilliers
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